Letterle is Wordle without the 'word' bit

Letterle, a one-letter version of Wordle.
(Image credit: Ed Jefferson)

Wordle is the flavour of early 2022, a simple daily word puzzle game that has moved into the mainstream and filled twitter with squares. Its success has seen a raft of imitators and spoofs like Sweardle (as well as the odd heartwarming tale), and the ongoing love affair has the best and worst of human behaviour in a nutshell.

But let's get down to brass tacks: What if Wordle, but no words? Letterle is a charming and daft take on the phenomenon which reduces it down to its constituent element: Guessing.

Each day, Letterle chooses a new letter. Each day, you can have up to 26 attempts to guess it. Yes it's absolutely absurd. But also, I got today's Letterle in 8 attempts and that somehow feels like an affirmation of slight latent psychic abilities (If calling Wordle a guessing game annoys you, fair enough, and here's actual strategies from people who think about it much more than I do).

Ed Jefferson created Letterle, and as you can see above feels the appropriate guilt. It's one of many fun projects he's got up to over the years: I particularly recommend How Patriotic Are You (UK Edition). I am 6.4 patriots out of 10.

Image

Wordle today: Get the answer
Wordle tips: Don't get STUMPed
Wordle starting words: Headstart
Games like Wordle: More dailies

Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."

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